Taya wondered why she was outside, in the freezing cold, being chatted up by a man she could hardly tolerate. Sure, he had told her that Abe had said something to him...about something that he wouldn't talk about until they were well out of the way of other people, but now she wasn't listening to a word he said, she had stopped doing so when she heard the words, 'The nights beautiful, isn't it?' What a load of crap. She was shaking, her toes were so cold they felt like they were about to fall off and any minute now, it was going to rain. Why she carried on and didn't go back inside was a mystery to her, her legs seemingly leading her to wherever Nuke wandered. The only reason she had accepted an invitation for a walk is because her brain was processing things extremely slowly under the influence of alcohol. And she was really curious. What could Abe have told him? She regretted those shots, as they made a slow but sure way into her blood stream. The world began to spin slightly, but in a 'good' way.

She was losing control and she knew it – that feeling of when your drunk, unable to control your actions but completely aware that you were doing them. As the alcohol took over she found that Nuke suddenly became a lot less irritating. She walked as straight as she could by his side, the gravel of the path crunching underfoot. And then the night did seem beautiful and she wasn't cold and she was giggling childishly at everything he said. Drunk. And she knew it.

They strolled down a small hill into one of the gardens at the back of the BPRD's main building. On both sides they were surrounded by thick, evergreen trees that arched over them, letting only patches of a dull moonlight filter through their leaves. When a particularly dark cloud would pass over head, they would be cast into almost complete darkness. Taya didn't like this, her vision had returned to normal after a few days back from the caves, leaving her virtually blind when it came to night time. Once again she had returned to keeping a lamp on, or even sneaking into the library so she didn't feel utterly alone. Sensing the shadows curl in around her, she gripped onto Nuke's arm. The man seemed startled at first but didn't falter as they walked down the path, deeper into the mini woods. He was talking again she realised suddenly, trying to latch onto what he was saying,

"...But it's only a little way away now, so don't worry," She shook her head, trying to shift the haze that had filled it. He looked down at her, smiling.

"The bench near the pond I was talking about," he told her, laughter dancing in his eyes.

"Oh," she replied dumbly, "Of course." Some time passed in silence, dragged on by the fear that was lurking in Taya's stomach. The further they seemed to venture together, the more it seemed to grow. She realised it wasn't only the dark that was chilling her thoughts, but something else. Her instincts weren't working all too well though, so she couldn't put a finger on it, leaving her numb to the real threats the night held.

Suddenly she felt something warm on her hand. So lodged in her own thoughts, she hadn't even realised her own action of winding her fingers in Nuke's.

What the fecking hell? Something right at the back of her tipsy mind yelled, almost going unheard. Her eyes fixed on their hands for a long moment, but she physically couldn't do anything about the fact it was there, entwined with someone's she hardly liked. It was like she had lost control of her very own limb. Still, she joked with him when he spoke, hating herself for it but the alcohol allowing nothing but.

"Hear we are," he breathed, sitting on the little wooden bench that looked like it could collapse at any moment with a hard enough kick. She placed herself next to him, looking out at the small pond that set before them. They were in a very small clearing, allowing her to see the moon and the tiny stars that the clouds had not engulfed. It was lighter here, but still something was not right. "Not many people know about this place," he told her, watching her from the corner of his eye. That seemed strange, it was only a little off the path...or had they gone further that she thought? Desperately she tried to get a hold of herself.

"Cool," she managed, smiling an awfully fake smile. "So what was it you had to tell me?" She was eyeing a shadow just across the pond...did something just...move? Nuke looked down at the hands in his lap and wound his thumbs around each other, like he was trying to summon the words to explain himself. He looked almost ashamed of something, but couldn't word what he wanted to tell her. She stayed quiet, waiting for him to talk. Finally he spoke, kindness flooding his voice,

"Abe told me...told me about what happened. You know? On the night you were brought into the BPRD..." Right then and there she heard her heart break, suddenly frozen and feeling sick to the core. The only man she had ever confided in had told her biggest secret, her worse fear. Blue had betrayed her.

Soultar wound round another corner and presided to shout what he had been shouting for the last tem minuets,

"River!" he paused to listen, hearing nothing, "Where are you River?" His voice echoed off the sandy cave walls. She could hear him, he knew she could. With a slight grin on his face he quickened his pace; this was a game she liked to play often when he hadn't visited in a few weeks.

A few minutes later he found himself in her bed chambers. This, the Desert cave was very much like the Lake cave, once inhabited by a great civilisation that had long ago been turned to dust. River, the Elf, spent most of her time in what was the royal bedroom, now nothing but a cold place of forgotten rubble. Why she did this he was not sure, but he would often come to find her crying in that ghostly, magnetic voice of hers, perched on what was once the four post bed of a prince. In fact, that was where he found her now, but gladly she was not weeping, instead her golden eyes were fixed on the room's entrance, exactly where he stood. Her scarlet lips curved upwards slightly. He stopped at the boundary of the chamber and waited to be invited inside and with a nod from her, his politeness was rewarded. She watched him approach, her delicate smile never leaving her pail features.

"Good afternoon Golem," she brushed her white hair behind her ear, "Are you here just to visit, or do you need something?" Soultar removed his coat and threw it onto the remains of the bed, never taking his eyes of the Elvin spirit. She too kept his gaze, until her shyness made her look at the floor, red rising in her cheeks. He sat next to her, ever amazed by the chilling cold that accompanied her presence as if the shadow of death was forever cast over her fragile body. Which it was, he supposed.

"I do not know yet," he answered honestly, almost oblivious to why he spent time with the Elf even after they had completed their 'business.' He understood a few things – she was a beautiful, exotic and forbidden fruit, that was almost at his mercy but still just out of his reach. This was mainly because every time he tried to touch her, confide in her, get to know her...she would turn away, or even use her ghostly power of disappearing. But, if anything he was persistent. Tonight, he would try again. "Actuarially, I just came to see you. I know how lonely you can be sometimes."

"No, you don't," she shot back, in a matter of fact tone of voice. Golem ground his teeth together, frustrated by the wall she always seemed to form around herself. Nothing could make him very angry on this earth, nothing but her.

"Well, I can try can't I?" She laughed slightly.

"Yes, of course. Start by locking yourself underground for a few thousand years...then I'll consider a conversation about how lonely we both feel, about how you miss the stars and the wind, the smell of life and the feel of the sun on your face. Yes, come to me then..." She stood up and walked towards a book shelf, taking out one of the ancient writings that lay there and flicking through its pages. How she longed for company when he was not here and how she longed for peace when he was. She enjoyed being with him some of the time, when he did not question her on what she thought of him, or tried to make her accept something other than friendship form him. She tolerated him for one reason and one reason only – Hearing another beings voice rescued her from insanity. She tried to focus on the words of the page, ignoring the footsteps that approached her. This was one of the books he had brought her, full of poetry. He had even thought her to read the language it was written in. She closed it.

With a start she realised he was standing in front of her, so close the warmness of his body invaded hers. She gave a light cry and looked to the floor once again, holding the book close to her chest.

"You were the first," he said softly, reaching out a hand and running it through her hair, entwining it in his slender fingers, "You helped me find the others, helped me become who I am," River stayed very still, like an animal too afraid to run from a predator. His hand moved to her face, stroking her cold cheeks with his thumb and whipping away a tear that fell from her enchanting eyes. With a finger he turned her chin towards him gently, making her look at him. His eyelids closed and he moved his dark lips towards her own. When she understood what he intended to do, she flickered out of existence.

Breathing heavily less than a second later, she repapered behind him. He only realised what had happened when the book she had been holding fell to the floor in front of him, causing a loud, dull thud. He clenched his fists together, spinning around. The fire River saw in his icy gaze made her shake.

"Then I helped a twisted teenager become a cruel man!" she cried, trying to fight the tears that stung her eyes, "I thought that you wanted to become something more, Soultar. Not cradle your obsession with leaving behind every shred of humanity you posses," he advanced towards her and she shrank away, suddenly wishing she had held her tong. She knew that when Golem was little more that a boy, he had been fond of her. Then she saw it as something innocent – a simple fascination with someone that had shown him kindness. But now he wanted her for his own, something she could never allow. Not only was it her that had lead him to the other immortals and even allowed him to stay with her when he ran away from home, she was now going to be the reason for millions of human's deaths. The only thing she could do within her power was to deny him of herself. So she did.

River bumped into a table, causing something to clatter behind her.

"Don't," He pointed at her, "Don't look at me like that River! You know I don't have it in me to hurt you, even if you torment me like this!" The anger in his voice died away when tears began to once again to slip down her cheeks, "All I want from you is your love, why is that too much to ask for?" To River, this proved he had lost humanity almost completely. All he wanted was her love. Any human knew that love was something brilliant and great and should never be degraded as something that could just be given away at request. Oh, how she pitied him. She turned around, leaning on the table and screwing her eyes shut. When did he become this monster? What happened to the charming young man she had practically brought up?

Soultar reached his arm around her stomach, pressing himself against her. He breathed in the scent of her hair, marvelled by the sweetness that took his senses over instantly. He brushed all of her hair over one of her shoulders, exposing her elegant neck. Slowly, savouring the feeling of her body against him, he planted a soft kiss on the graceful skin that lay there. Finally she had given in, finally she had realised he was right for her, finally they would-

She was gone again. This time, she didn't come back. Why was she so stubborn? He was everything that was right for her – not only did he give her the company she so longed for, but if she asked him, he would do anything for her. Slamming a fist down on the table, sending a candle stick clattering to the floor, he decided he would leave his end ever for tonight...after he had apologized. Even though he thought he was right in what he did.

So, he sat on the bed and waited for her to fall back into existence.

River glared at the back that greeted her when she walked back into her chambers, entering from the small enjoining library instead of the corridor. Usually, when he had given up on her for the night, he would return to where ever he went...to do whatever his evil mind conjured up. She watched him, thinking of the time when he was once just a teenager that wanted her help...that wanted to be normal. Of course at one point his longing to be the same as the others around him had changed into wanting to be superior to them. His ever fidgeting hands played with a watch. She smiled, being restless was one of the habits he had no doubt picked up from her. Yet she could not bring herself to end his torture so for now she remained in her memories of a better time.

Soultar had been born deformed. For all of his life up until the age of fourteen, he was ridiculed by the people around him, called the spawn of Satin, beaten by his parents...rejected by all that surrounded him. He spent his time alone and he read, all sorts of fantastical stories and he longed to be the hero in them, longed to be that person that everyone looked up to. But it seemed that fate had something else in stall for the young, misshapen boy. In his dreams came to him the old man, the man that promised eternal life to the so called 'saviours' of humanity. River remembered well what Golem had told her, that the old man had said to seek her out, told him that she could be the answerer to all of his problems. So one day, he found her cave. At first she was so shocked and happy to be in the presence of another living being, she did not notice his deformity. But when this surprise ebbed, she was left staring at a freak – The boys back was curved and hunched, leaving him forever staring at the floor. His arms seemed to be slightly misshapen and he walked with a limp.

He was shy of her gaze, feeling like once aging he was being tormented for the way he was born. But she had held him then, telling him that she would help because that's who she was – The healer, the one that would cure mans afflictions. But of course this was not an injury...so it was not within her power to fix everything. She told him of the Sphinx, the creature who knew magic. She told him to go to her and seek her help. She told him that everything would be ok. The thing is, it was for years after, or so it seemed. He had freed the Sphinx, answering her unanswerable riddle, and she had begun to teach him all she knew of the dark arts. Slowly it began to change his body, but still he was left the misshapen being he had always been. In rage he plotted, without her knowledge, against humanity. He wanted to destroy them all...because...because he couldn't be a part of them.

Then, one day he met a doctor, one of the only human doctors he had ever met that showed him no malice. By now the age of electricity had long since dawned and cars and planes and buildings that touched the sky had taken over the world. River had never seen anything but photos of these things of course. This doctor became a part of the family – The Sphinx being something of a motherly figure to Soultar and the Doctor being a kind of father. Now that Golem was a man though...he had started to become more interested in more than just River's kind words.

The Doctor began to operate on Soultar, doing procedures on him that no man would dare without the magic there to keep him alive. Things like cutting through his very spine to re-shape it, something that was impossible to under normal circumstances. Now, as well as being obsessed with the dark arts, Soultar became obsessed with performing surgery on himself and to others. Soon he had created himself what was, in his eyes, something as close to perfection a body could get. By this time she knew it was too late for his sole though. Yet she still wished she could have been there for the first time he looked up to the stars without feeling his spine strain. How amazing that must have been.

He seemed to gain nothing but the cruellest of hearts after this though, hell bent on making his plans come to life. The Chimeras began to appeared then. River hated the un-natural beasts and ordered Soultar to get them out of her cave. He did as she pleased...but with them...he seemed to drift further away too. Now he only visited her when it suited him. This was one of those times.

River placed a delicate hand on the man's shoulder, watching his hands wind around the chain of the pocket watch. It had belonged to the Doctor, before he passed away. Inscribed on it were his initials – E.H.

She never found out what happened to the kind Doctor. She missed him.

"Soultar," she said softly, still hoping that one day he would become the boy he once was "You should go and sleep." He kept his eyes on the watch, captured by its gleam like a magpie.

"I am sorry," he told her. She stroked his head like a loving mother, soothing her child.

"Then rest."

"May I rest here tonight?" he asked, almost innocently. River's hand paused on his hair as she hesitated.

"Yes," she decided, knowing that he could do nothing to her unless she willed it. Silently she watched as he removed his belt that carried his weapons and crawled under the ancient sheets of the broken bed. There was that child again; the one she wished would remain. Without a sound she picked up the book that she had dropped on the floor before hand. Opening the pages, she read to the already sleeping man.

Had I Heaven's embodied clothes,

Enwrought with the golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark clothes,

Of night and light and half-light,

I would spread the clothes under your feet

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet:

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

A/N: Hella everybody!! So sorry for the long wait...This hopefully with be the longest you will ever have to wait for an update *Crosses fingers* Well, as you can see...Things are awfully strange at the moment in Fears And Hearts...but, but, but...questions shall be answered in the next chapter, which won't take as long to finish, promise! Ok, so who votes I kill off Nuke? Hes managing to annoy me and he's my character!XD So, who thinks Abe's been naughty? ): Oh, and who can give me a name beginning with 'E' that suits the doctor? I really can't think of one. If you need to know some of his personality or anything, PM me ^^ The wonderful poem is not mine and was created by Yeats, who wrote it for his lover (everyone go 'Awwww!') lol. (I think I should point out that River does NOT love Soultar in any way by a friendly way...) And, well...Hope to see you all in the review section *Hint Hint* Lovage to you people!!!!